Rosa Uribe

SERIES

The Spike of the Opuntia
Fraternize
Beyond Blame
But hey, I’m trying
Out of _
SMIRK
The hands that build me


FILMS

Mature for her age
I am sorry
Suicide and song
About grief

others

EXHIBITIONS

Royal Academy of Arts (KABK)

About me
Contact

Beyond Blame2023

I started Beyond Blame from a place of anger. I was tired of hearing the same questions after sexual violence: What was she wearing? Had she been drinking? Why did she go there? Did she say no clearly enough? Questions that seem to look for an explanation, but often end up moving responsibility away from the person who caused the harm.

I spoke with survivors whose experiences happened at very different ages, from early childhood to adulthood. Some were three years old when it happened. Others were twenty eight. I listened to what they wanted to share, and photographed the clothes they remembered wearing at the time of the assault. The clothes became important to me not because they could explain what happened, but because of how much meaning is placed onto them afterwards. A dress, a pair of trousers, children's clothes. Ordinary objects are turned into evidence, as if somewhere in their fabric there could be a reason.

But victim blaming goes further than clothes. It asks people who have already been harmed to reconstruct their own behaviour and find the moment where they supposedly failed to prevent it. It teaches us to look for mistakes in the person who was hurt rather than at the choices of the person who hurt them. Beyond Blame holds these stories together without asking them to prove anything. Their experiences are different, but the responsibility is not. I wanted to make a place where their grief and anger could exist alongside mine, without having to defend themselves first.






Please consider visiting the following trusted organizations for support, counseling, and assistance:
RAINN or NSVRC.